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A Sea of Trash on Lebanon’s Beaches

A beach in Zouk Mosbeh, north of Beirut, was covered with trash after a winter storm.Credit
Joseph Eid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A winter storm in Lebanon has resurfaced a longstanding national problem, in the form of a swirling sea of garbage.

Piles of trash began washing up Monday on the beaches of Zouk Mosbeh, a town 10 miles north of Beirut, leaving the shore littered with refuse. An earlier storm surge had dragged trash from a landfill out to sea, later depositing it along the coastline and up to 100 feet inland.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday ordered a cleanup of the beaches in the Kaserwan district, home to Zouk Mosbeh and a region filled with beach resorts.

Lebanon’s waste crisis, which some residents see as a symptom of the government’s failure to provide basic services to its citizens, has caused public outrage in the past.

In 2015, protests against poor trash collection and management took hold across the country, culminating in the “You Stink” movement — a name that pointed to both the smell of uncollected trash festering in the summer heat, and to the perceived corruption underlying the Lebanese government.

The trash pile-up has reignited outrage over a waste management crisis that has gripped the country since 2015.Credit
Hussein Malla/Associated Press

“Instead of using the waste as a resource for the economy, politicians are using it as a means to assert their political agendas,” said Sammy Kayed of the American University of Beirut’s Nature Conservation Center.

The recent accumulation of trash on Lebanon’s coastline — known for its Mediterranean beaches that attract vacationers from across the world — has led politicians to trade jabs ahead of coming parliamentary elections.

Samy Gemayel, a member of parliament and the leader of Lebanon’s Kataeb political party, called for the resignation of Tareq al-Khatib, the minister of the environment, for “failing to adopt preventive measures” to combat the trash, according to state news media.

A photographer wading through piles of garbage, a day after a winter storm hit the Zouk Mosbeh area.Credit
Nabil Mounzer/European Pressphoto Agency

Mr. Khatib hit back on Tuesday, saying that open dumping in a district overseen by Mr. Gemayel’s party was one of the main sources of the garbage.

While politicians take turns laying blame on one another, activists and residents have expressed dismay at Lebanon’s resurgent trash problem.

“This is just one manifestation of something very severe happening in many places, not just in Kaserwarn,” Mr. Kayed said. “If they wanted to — if there was a real desire to negotiate and set up the necessary infrastructure for recycling and treating waste as the resource that it has the potential to be — it could be done.”

Hwaida Saad and Anne Barnard contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on January 23, 2018, on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Sea of Garbage Covers the Beaches Of Lebanon. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe